diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index 990c09b611..31e2346dfe 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -246,6 +246,8 @@ endif ()
 message(
     "\n====================|  Bro Build Summary  |====================="
     "\n"
+    "\nBuild type:        ${CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE}"
+    "\nBuild dir:         ${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}"
     "\nInstall prefix:    ${CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX}"
     "\nBro Script Path:   ${BRO_SCRIPT_INSTALL_PATH}"
     "\nDebug mode:        ${ENABLE_DEBUG}"
diff --git a/configure b/configure
index b58dd84c6a..757dfc595b 100755
--- a/configure
+++ b/configure
@@ -18,6 +18,12 @@ Usage: $0 [OPTION]... [VAR=VALUE]...
 
   Build Options:
     --builddir=DIR         place build files in directory [build]
+    --build-type=TYPE      set CMake build type [RelWithDebInfo]:
+                             - Debug: optimizations off, debug symbols + flags
+                             - MinSizeRel: size optimizations, debugging off
+                             - Release: optimizations on, debugging off
+                             - RelWithDebInfo: optimizations on,
+                                   debug symbols on, debug flags off
     --generator=GENERATOR  CMake generator to use (see cmake --help)
 
   Installation Directories:
@@ -34,7 +40,7 @@ Usage: $0 [OPTION]... [VAR=VALUE]...
     --conf-files-dir=PATH  config files installation directory [PREFIX/etc]
 
   Optional Features:
-    --enable-debug         compile in debugging mode
+    --enable-debug         compile in debugging mode (like --build-type=Debug)
     --enable-mobile-ipv6   analyze mobile IPv6 features defined by RFC 6275
     --enable-perftools     force use of Google perftools on non-Linux systems
                            (automatically on when perftools is present on Linux)
@@ -153,6 +159,13 @@ while [ $# -ne 0 ]; do
         --builddir=*)
             builddir=$optarg
             ;;
+        --build-type=*)
+            append_cache_entry CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE     STRING $optarg
+
+            if [ $(echo "$optarg" | tr [:upper:] [:lower:]) = "debug" ]; then
+                append_cache_entry ENABLE_DEBUG         BOOL   true
+            fi
+            ;;
         --generator=*)
             CMakeGenerator="$optarg"
             ;;